May 23, 2010

If you thought Molobaly was too modern I advise you to skip this one. Souleymane Traoré, better known under his stage name Neba Solo*, is musically far closer to the "Balani Show" style than Molobaly.

I met him once at Mali K7 in Bamako, and he appeared to be a rather shy young guy, - quite a contrast to his somewhat boisterous manager. So I suspect the addition of several 'modern effects' may have been inspired by the french engineer at Studio Bogolan. The dosage is rather modest though...

This cassette was recorded with a definite commercial purpose. It was to be a 'hit' at the African Nation Cup, which was held in Mali in January 2002. Should you be interested in who won, by the way, on this wikipedia page are all the results.
At the time of these recordings Neba Solo had already had 'hit CD' on the market, titled "Kenedougou Foly". This CD was released on the European market in 1998.

All this talk about markets in my opinion is reflected in the music. Personally Neba Solo is trying too hard on this cassette. And I am sure the studio engineers have shown him the way to 'conquer the markets'.
Especially vocally Neba falls short of the mark. Not only compared to others, like Molobaly Keita or popular young stars like Dabara, but also compared to his first cassette ("Hommage A Lamissa Bangaly", which I will post later) or even to his "Kenedougou Foly" CD.
The instrumentation does, however, make up for a lot.......

A video clip of the second track of this cassette can be found here (or here). And a live version recorded 5 years ago in Ntogonasso (which, judging by the name, I guess to be somewhere near Sikasso) of the first track on side B here.
And finally here is a video from Malian television, shared by Ngoni on his very promising YouTube channel.

* a stage name which I gather carries a reference to the village of Nebadougou where he was born, plus to his own first name.

Really nice to have a better sounding version of this cassette than mine. I was in Mali in 2002 but it took me a while to work out what the non pirate cassettes looked like & I bought a bit of a hopeless one. One of the other cassettes I got, Oumou Sangares "Mussowla Diala" also seemed to be aimed at getting in on the football fever. Unfortunately I got a pirate copy of this as well! Have you come across this one?

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After more than 23 years of making radio programmes I am seeking new ways to share my passion for African and Latin music. My intentions are 100% non-commercial.
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